Belmar

A 1960s enclosed mall was torn down and is being replaced by a new downtown for a suburb of Denver. The 104-acre Belmar is a prime example of the opportunities that lie in the redevelopment of grayfield sites.

“Belmar brought together a lot of uses that might otherwise have dispersed around the landscape,” says Tom Gougeon, development director for Continuum Partners. “It will make Lakewood more viable in the long run economically, as a first tier suburb” of Denver. Belmar is designed to become the downtown that Lakewood never had, with a million square feet of retail, 600,000 square feet of office space, a fullservice hotel, and 1,400 residential units at buildout. The project is currently under construction, growing block by block since opening in 2004. It has the feel of a 24-hour environment, where residents can do their shopping, dine out, take in a movie, participate in civic events, and in some cases work for one of the employers at the development.1

Continuum took the idea of recycling seriously at Belmar. First, the site itself was reused. Second, one of the former mall’s department stores was converted to a mixed-use building. The developer would have preferred to reuse more of the former buildings, but they stood in the path of the street grid that connected to peripheral roads. An on-site construction and demolition debris recycling plant — set up by Continuum found a way to recycle 200,000 tons of concrete and 2 million square feet of asphalt. Visit the Belmar website here.2

• 1. New Urbanism Best Practices Guide, 4th ed. New Urban News Publications.
• 2. Ibid.